University of California, Davis, USA.
University of California, Merced, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2018 Feb;199:39-48. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.03.009. Epub 2017 Mar 9.
Exclusionary immigration policies, as a form of structural racism, have led to a sizeable undocumented population that is largely barred from access to resources in the United States. Existing research suggests that undocumented immigration status detrimentally impacts mobility, yet few studies have tested the impacts of legal status on psychological wellbeing. Most importantly, we know little about how changes to legal status impact wellbeing. Announced in 2012, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program allows eligible undocumented youth to apply for temporary lawful status. Drawing on cross-sectional survey data from 487 Latino immigrant young adults in California collected in 2014 and 2015, we analyze the predictors of three specialized outcomes related to immigrants' psychological wellbeing-distress, negative emotions, and deportation worry before and after a transition from undocumented to lawfully present status. Results show that retrospective reports of past psychological wellness, when all respondents were undocumented, are predicted primarily by socioeconomic status. However, reports of current psychological wellness are predicted by DACA status. Our results demonstrate, for the first time, the positive emotional consequences of transitioning out of undocumented status for immigrant young adults.
排斥性移民政策作为一种结构性种族主义形式，导致了相当数量的无证移民群体，他们在美国基本上被剥夺了获得资源的机会。现有研究表明，无证移民身份对流动性有不利影响，但很少有研究测试法律身份对心理健康的影响。最重要的是，我们对法律身份的变化如何影响幸福感知之甚少。2012 年宣布的《童年入境暂缓遣返》（DACA）计划允许符合条件的无证青年申请临时合法身份。本研究利用 2014 年至 2015 年在加利福尼亚州收集的 487 名拉丁裔移民青年成年人的横断面调查数据，分析了从无证到合法身份过渡前后与移民心理健康相关的三个特殊结果的预测因素：痛苦、负面情绪和驱逐担忧。结果表明，在所有受访者都是无证的情况下，过去心理健康的回顾性报告主要由社会经济地位决定。然而，目前的心理健康报告则由 DACA 身份决定。我们的研究结果首次表明，对于移民青年成年人来说，从无证身份过渡到合法身份会带来积极的情感后果。
